DCAU #241: Lucky Day!

IN THIS ONE... Two-Face will either kill his dad tonight, or destroy his new-found fortune.

CREDITS: Written by Ty Templeton; art by Rick Burchett and Terry Beatty.

REVIEW: In terms of both art and story, this series feels a lot bolder than any other DCAU tie-in project to date, at least among those written by people not working on the show. There's a certain temerity to giving Two-Face an abusive father who used the famous scratched silver dollar to dispense punishment in the household, a gambling addict who led his family to ruin and Harvey Dent to turn his back on him. I'm not sure I need or even want that add-on to Two-Face's origin, but I do respect how ballsy it is. (If these details are actually from some comic or episode I don't remember, I might adjust my feelings accordingly, but it all seems like new information to me.)

Anyone who's ever had daddy issues will get some satisfaction from Two-Face engineering his father's ironic downfall, destroying the "luckiest day" this gambler thinks he's ever had, on a game show, in front of everyone, no less. Which sort of made sure Batman would be present to keep the mayhem at a minimum. The Bat Family does spend most of its time fighting goons to get to the studio, and if it weren't so stylish and gorgeous, I'd call it padding. Truth is, the energy adds to the story's tension. And while the heroes prevent the worse from happening, Two-Face wins anyway, in the best possible way.

4
comments:

I had to dig a little to find this, but it's looking like Batman Annual #14 from 1990 is when Two-Face's origin was re-written to include the abusive father with the coin. It's also later referenced in The Long Halloween, according to Wikipedia (which was coming out around the same time as the issue you discussed), and Denny O'Neill also used that story when writing the novelization of "The Dark Knight."

"I'm not sure I need or even want that add-on to Two-Face's origin, but I do respect how ballsy it is. (If these details are actually from some comic or episode I don't remember, I might adjust my feelings accordingly, but it all seems like new information to me.)"

Out of curiosity why would this make a difference? Why would any feelings have to be adjusted? Any criticism you have of the idea isn't any less valid if it appeared somewhere before this issue.